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Victoria turned to glare at him. “I’ve got work to do,” she said stiffly, moving toward her desk. He intercepted her, forestalling her intention.

“Not tonight.”

Some of the fight went out of her. “If I don’t do it tonight, there’ll only be more tomorrow.”

He gave her a look and a reluctant smile tugged at her lips. “I know what you have in mind, but I’m too tense to have any interest in sex right now.”

“I hadn’t thought of it, but now that you mention it....”

“Right.”

He cocked his head. “If it would help you to relax, I’d be glad to accommodate you.”

Victoria laughed. Giving up the fight, she lifted her arms and draped them around his neck. “You are a selfless man.”

His lips twitched. “I am,” he murmured just before he kissed her. Victoria melted against him, feeling tingles all the way to her toes as he filled her senses with his essence; the lazy caress of his tongue; the silkiness of his hair beneath her fingers; his scent; his taste; his warmth; and the power in the muscles holding her, pressed so tightly against her length she could feel every ripple of muscle, could feel the nudge of his erection at the apex of her thighs. Reaching down, she stroked the length of his cock through his breeches.

When he broke the kiss at last, they undressed each other, caressing every inch of flesh they unveiled in the process with their hands, their mouths and tongues. Raphael lifted her up when they were both naked, guiding her legs around his waist and capturing the peak of one breast in his mouth. Victoria locked her ankles around him, moaning at the wonderful sensations that emanated from the suction of his mouth through her breast and down into her belly, making her sex pool with the moisture of anticipation. Tightening her arms around him, she moved restlessly against him as he fondled first one breast and then the other, the rough texture of his lower body sending sharp needles of pleasure through the damp petals of her sex as she undulated against him.

She became restless to feel him inside of her, to feel the slow glide of his hardened flesh against the quaking walls of her sex. Anticipation burgeoned inside of her as he moved to the bed at last, but, to her surprise, he settled her on the edge of the bed. When he knelt between her parted thighs, a rush of heat went through her. He spread her thighs wide, moved closer and pulled her to him for a deep kiss that left her weak and breathless before he moved down, suckling each tightened peak of her breast hard. Her heart accelerated as waves of pleasure washed through her, her breath catching in her chest until her lungs labored and her head spun.

She leaned back, propping on her arms as he moved lower, his lips and tongue producing pleasurable quakes inside of her as he made his way down her stomach to her belly, sending flurries of goose bumps racing across her flesh. When he reached her sex at last, he paused, scooped an arm beneath each knee, lifting her thighs, spreading them wider still, studying her, his eyes darkening with desire. He lifted his gaze to hers, lowered his head slowly and ran his tongue along her heated sex.

Victoria shuddered, her eyes sliding half closed as pleasure washed through her. She bit her lip to stifle a moan as his mouth opened over her heated flesh, but she couldn’t contain it as he lathed her with his tongue, nudging the center of her pleasure in a way that had her gasping for breath, moaning as the pleasure built to exquisite torture. The muscles inside of her palpitated as the pleasure built to a crescendo, exploded into a flood of fire.

The strength went out of her arms as her climax hit her and she collapsed back against the bed, uttering sharp gasps that bordered on screams as he continued to lick and suckle, pushing her climax to the limits.

She was barely conscious as he moved up and over her, pulled her tightly against him and kissed her. She kissed him back, tasting herself on his lips. It sent a heady rush through her, sent throbbing echoes of remembered passion through her belly, reminding her that she had received but had not given.

She rolled on top of him. Breaking the kiss, she moved down over him in worshipful fashion, caressing his chest with her hands and her lips, tasting him with her tongue, nipping him playfully with her teeth as she worked her way over his body until she reached her goal. Taking his cock in her hand, she looked up at him as she ran her tongue up his cock from the root to the rounded head. He shuddered, gasped hoarsely with pleasure as she teased the ultra sensitive ridge around the head of his cock with her tongue and finally covered the head of his cock with her mouth, sucking.

He clutched her hair, his fingers tightening reflexively as she slowly covered his erection, taking him as deeply into her mouth as she could, then slowly lifted her head once more, allowing him to slip almost free, until only the head remained in her mouth. She suckled him again, feeling her belly clench with pleasure as he groaned under her teasing caress, moving restlessly, clutching at the sheets.

When she had teased him until she felt he was hovering on the verge of coming, she began to stroke him harder and faster with her mouth, pushing him toward climax. Finally, with a hoarse cry, he caught her, flipped her onto her back and moved over her, sinking his cock to the hilt in her flesh. Holding himself off of her with one arm, he slipped the other beneath her hips, pounding into her again and again. Victoria lifted her legs and wrapped them around him as she felt her own pleasure building again with each stroke of his flesh against the quaking walls of her sex.

Gasping, she met each thrust with one of her own as her passion rose higher and higher, until she was hovering on the edge of fulfillment. When he cried out hoarsely as his climax took him over the edge, his cock jerking inside of her with his release, she fell over the edge herself, clinging to him as wave upon wave of pleasure rocked her to her core.

They collapsed in a tangle of arms and legs, weak in the aftermath, shaking, struggling for breath. Finally, Raphael rolled off of her, gathering her close. Victoria snuggled sleepily against him, drifting, wondering if she could find the energy to leave the bed and tackle the paperwork she’d neglected.

Raphael sighed, stroking her. “The only time I have your full attention is when I’m making you moan with pleasure,” he said wryly.

Victoria sent him a startled glance and then chuckled. “Serves you right. I told you to stay out of my head.”

He stroked her cheek. “I’d rather have a morsel of your time than the undivided attention of a dozen others.”

Intrigued, Victoria pushed herself up so that she could look down at him. “Really? Most men would far prefer the harem. Not that that archaic concept is allowed anywhere in the known universe.”

Raphael grinned. “You are a harem all to yourself, shy one moment, aggressive the next. I never know which woman I’ll find in my bed.”

“My bed,” Victoria corrected.

“My arms?” he amended meekly.

Victoria tweaked his nipple. She might have tugged a hair, except that his body was smooth and hairless, making it an impossibility. She skated a hand over his chest, enjoying the sleek feel of his flesh. “I hope you’re not suggesting I have schizophrenic tendencies.”

He chuckled. “No. Only that you are always a ... delightful surprise.” His amusement vanished, and he studied her seriously. “Stay with me, Victoria.”

Victoria found she couldn’t hold his gaze. She looked away, shrugged. “It’s not my choice. You know that.”

He caught her cheek with his palm, made her look at him. “I want to know what you want.”

She sighed. The problem was, she didn’t really know what she wanted. At the moment, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than to wrap herself up in Raphael and ignore the troubles of the world she found herself in, but she cared too much for him to toy with his emotions. He’d said he loved her. Perhaps he did ... or maybe he didn’t know any more than she did, but she couldn’t bring herself to risk wounding him deeply.

He smiled faintly. “I’ll accept that ... for now.”

Victoria shook her head, but found she didn’t give a damn about that particular rule. Raphael was the only thing that offered her comfort and relief. She needed that if she was to have any chance of getting any of them through this alive. She’d deal with the consequences later. Leaning up, she kissed him briefly. “Sleep. God only knows what we’ll find tomorrow.”

When tomorrow came, they discovered something no one had noticed during the turmoil Brown and Quinton’s near confrontation had caused. One of the searchers hadn’t returned.

* * * *

Slowly, he became aware of his surroundings.

It was dark, but he knew he wasn’t in his quarters.

He felt strangely detached, but he knew he wasn’t sleeping.

Around him, as he pondered the curious circumstances, the waters lightened, showing him that he was in the sea ... drifting. He frowned, realizing that something wasn’t quite as it should have been. He could see movement, but he couldn’t feel it.

He realized then that he could feel nothing at all and fear surged through him. Why could he feel nothing? Why could he not lift his hand, his arms, his legs? He struggled for a while, willing his body to respond to his mind, trying to sit upright.

Slowly, inexorably, pain began to spread through him. At first, he was almost relieved. He thought it meant that the strange paralysis was wearing off, but he found he still couldn’t move any part of his body. He couldn’t move away from the pain that became steadily worse until he felt as if he was on fire with it.

When he felt that he couldn’t bear it any longer and live, the pain ceased almost as abruptly as it had begun. A sense of peace flowed through him, and relief.

But darkness flowed in the wake of it and he found he was afraid of the dark. He struggled against it.

Abruptly, he felt his head lifted up. He opened his eyes, tried to focus. Slowly, his sight cleared.

And then he screamed and kept on screaming, because he could see where his body should be, but it wasn’t there.

Raphael cried out, coming awake with a jerk. His heart felt as if it was beating a hundred miles an hour and he clutched his chest, massaging it.

Victoria complained sleepily, but roused enough to notice that Raphael was sitting up in bed. “What is it?”

Raphael turned to look at her, but already the images were fading from his mind. “I dreamed I was someone else,” he said slowly. “I was there, I could see, but it was as if I was looking through someone else’s eyes.”

Victoria sat up, looking at him in concern. “What did you see?”

Raphael shook his head, trying to remember. “I can’t remember. Only that it was horrible.”

Victoria lay down again, pulling him with her and snuggling against him. “It was just a nightmare,” she murmured, rubbing his chest.

“A nightmare?”

“Bad dream. They always seem scary at the time, but when you wake up you either can’t remember what you dreamed, or it seems ridiculous that it scared you to start with.”

Raphael shuddered. “I don’t think it was a dream.”

* * * *

The transition from air breather to gills was a little easier to bear when Victoria joined Raphael the following morning, not much, but somewhat. They divided the miners into two groups, one to handle moving the ore, the rest they broke into three smaller groups and sent out to search for Roach.

Victoria stood at the opening to the mine shaft for several moments, looking down and finally glanced at Raphael. Ready?

He nodded, his expression grim. If we run into trouble....

Victoria shook her head, knowing what he’d been about to suggest. She held her weapon up. We go in together. We come out together. No heroics.

Raphael lifted his brows but neither agreed nor disagreed, merely stepping off the rim of the opening and allowing himself to drift downwards. Victoria dove head first, clutching her laser rifle at the ready and using only her feet to propel her forward. As she passed Raphael, he bent double, twisted and, with a flick of his tail fin, shot past her, leading the way. He settled on the lip of the tunnel they had come to investigate, waiting until she caught up with him before he moved inside.

Lights had been secured into the ceiling of the shaft every ten feet or so. They bathed the walls with a dull yellow glow, chasing most of the shadows away. Victoria examined the walls in a cursory fashion as they made their way deeper into the tunnel, but could see nothing that seemed even a little irregular or out of place. They’d been traveling down the tunnel for nearly twenty minutes when Raphael stopped, looking around.

This is where they stopped excavating.

Victoria stopped, as well, glancing around at the ceiling, the walls, the floor of the man made cavern. It just stopped abruptly here? Who was in here first?

Me.

You didn’t see any sign that they might have dug something other than ore from the walls?

He shook his head. It looks like the same tools were used to excavate this part as the rest. I suppose they might have run the tunnel into an existing cavern, but if they did I don’t see any sign of it. You didn’t notice any mention of anything like that in the reports?

Victoria flushed uncomfortably. I haven’t had the time to go through all of the reports. I decided to start with the last and work backwards, but I haven’t gotten very far.

Raphael nodded without comment. It doesn’t look like we’ll find anything here.

Victoria looked around the cavern again and finally moved closer to one wall, reaching out to touch the surface. The pressure field that supported the tunnel against collapse yielded as she pushed against it until her hand was resting on the rock surface. She found a small, round hole about two inches in diameter. What’s this?

Raphael moved closer, looked at the almost perfectly round hole with a frown. I don’t know. I hadn’t noticed it before.

None of the equipment would have made anything like this?

He shook his head. Nothing we have. Nothing I’ve seen that the crew before us might have been using. Maybe they set up some kind of pole system to support the tunnel until they had the pressure system up and running?